Wed November 28, 2012

Austin usually ranks against cosmopolitan destinations in the numerous lists it’s named in. But try this one on for size: Provo, Utah.

The metro areas of Austin and Provo lead the nation in expected household growth, according to a new study based on U.S. Census data. The projection is for Austin to grow by 7.4 percent, adding 50,000 households over the next five years.

This time, Austin has been listed as the eighth “best” American city by Bloomberg Businessweek, which places the Capital City three spots higher than Bloomberg had it last year.

How do the rankings decide which cities are best? Or what exactly “best” means? That’s easy, sort of: Bloomberg Businessweek cross-referenced data from Onboard Informatics and Trust for Public Land to construct a ranking system. The system, in turn, relies on the number of bars and restaurants, employment percentages, crime rates and educational markers.

Earlier this year Forbes magazine ranked Austin the 19th Coolest City in America.

Normally this would be an honor, but the list also points out that we’re the fifth coolest city in the state behind Houston (no. 1), Dallas (no.4), San Antonio (no.11), and even Fort Worth (no.13), which all ranked higher than the Capital City on the coolness scale.

It's tempting to think the Forbes editors walked around the country, counting pairs of skinny jeans, denim vests and distressed flannel shirts. But the list was actually composed through a partnership with Nextdoor.com, which ranked the East Side as Austin's hottest hipster home base over South Congress and Travis Heights, and Walkscore.com, which tallied the number and proximity of coffee shops, food trucks, locally-owned bars and restaurants and more to pinpoint hip activity.

Austin

1:33 pm

Tue January 4, 2011

Does a day go by without Austin ranking high on some cool list? Yesterday it was third place in a ranking for entrepreneurs, today we are number one on a list of top spending cities. Bundle.com's list doesn't account for boring expenses like mortgage and rent. That's probably why New York City ranked number 53, and it's why relatively affluent towns with low housing costs fared better.